Saint Joseph Catholic Church

“Perhaps the right distinction to make is not so much between believers and non-believers, but between seekers and non-seekers of God,” Pope Leo wrote. “We are all longing for Love, we are all seekers of God. And therein lies the dignity and beauty of our lives.”

The exchange was published in Piazza San Pietro, a magazine published under the Vatican basilica’s auspices. Pope Leo has continued his predecessor’s custom of answering one letter in each issue.

In his February 25 editorial, Tornielli cited a 1981 homily by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI). Tornielli spoke of the similarities between Cardinal Ratzinger’s description of the Church in the homily and Pope Francis’s image of the Church as a field hospital.

Father Sergio Omar Sotelo Aguilar, director of the Catholic Multimedia Center, spoke about the economic, political, and military power of drug traffickers and said that the nation’s bishops have “begun to denounce, very directly, the terrible damage that drug trafficking and organized crime are causing.”

“My country has become a dangerous place for journalists and priests, as well as for those who fight in defense of human rights,” he added. “Fighting for a free, peaceful, and just Mexico will always be a privilege worth giving your life for.”

The Major Archbishop recalled celebrating the Divine Liturgy in a shelter as missiles struck Kyiv. “There we realized that we had not been abandoned by God—Jesus was present with His people in the Eucharist.”

“This memory of tragedy and heroism becomes a law, a rule for our life today,” he added. “It is a law that guides and commands us: to defend our homeland, to defend human life in Ukraine, and to move forward, trusting that good will always triumph over evil. From that very first moment, we knew that Ukraine would prevail.”

The Major Archbishop concluded:

We know that the root cause of war is human sin. People start wars and then become enslaved by this demon, which destroys even those who unleashed it. But we know that the One who brings an end to war and sin is our God and Savior. Therefore, today we pray: “God, great and one, protect Ukraine!”

In a Spanish-language message to a conference in Mexico on Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pope Leo XIV reflected on inculturation and upheld Our Lady of Guadalupe as its model.